We have 1 guest online





Lost Password?
No account yet? Register

Whole Latte Love!

What's New?

EspressoTec.Com


Baratza Inc.

Baratza.com - Creators of the Virtuoso!

Transcend Coffee

Home arrow Forum
Welcome to the CoffeeCrew forum for registered users. - feel free to make yourself at home. This forum is dedicated to coffee and espresso based issues.

Forum spammers, link referrers, link placement, scam artists, confidence artists, crooks and obvious commercial shilling is discouraged. Violation of this one simple rule will result in you and your immediate geographical region being banned from the site so do not post ads or links to your site here unless approved by me! Violators of this one simple rule will find their firm, employer, and your pitiful self invoiced $1000 per violation of this simple rule. Enjoy!

The coffeecrew guestbook and forum has been alive for more than 10 years! Please consider it your one-stop resource for finding out about all things coffee, espresso, specialty coffee and all associated gear and equipment.

We welcome long posts - there is no word limit in fact. Keep in mind that you can only type for 15 to 20 minutes in the forum-post submit window (session timeout)- so consider composing your posts or responses in a text editor - then cut and paste! Thank you and enjoy the forums!

CoffeeCrew.com Discussion Forum and Guestbook  


Boardwalk :: Forum List Espresso in General Higher end > 400 dollars
Chelle
User

Coffee Lover
Posts: 4
graphgraph
Karma: 1  
Once bitten, twice shy - 2008/05/17 09:02 In my quest to find the perfect home machine, it seems I'm back to square 1 again.

I owned a Starbucks Barista for a couple years. It served me well, and made great shots. When it came time to upgrade (last Christmas) I got swept up in the super-automatic hype. I was disillusioned by the convenience factor, and had dreams of waking up, pushing a button, and coming back a few minutes later to a perfectly brewed latte. I was hesitant to give up control of the shots, but decided to give the Gaggia Syncrony Compact a chance. BIG MISTAKE.

At first, after having a semi-automatic for so long, I rather enjoyed the convenience of pushing a few buttons. I was even willing to overlook the fact the shots were mediocre, and definitely not to the standard of which I was used to. I've had some issues with it, and soon realized it was a needy little thing. Very temperamental, I'm constantly having to trip the censors because it just loses its mind. Last week a plastic part broke in the brew group when I was taking it out to clean it, and it's not been working right since. With some manipulation, my husband rigged it to where it will work long enough to brew a shot or two, but then it craps out again. I need to pack it up and send it back to Gaggia to have it repaired under warranty, and I'm going to be without it for weeks, if not longer.

Honestly, after 5 months of having this machine I'm ready to just cut my losses, bite the bullet and buy a real machine. I don't want to see another super-automatic again. If I had 5K to spend on a really good one, I'm sure it would do better, but I don't, so I'm not even going to mess around with them.

Before I bought the Syncrony, I was also looking at the Rancilio Sylvia/Rocky combo. This is the one my husband wanted to go with. I should have listened to him. (hindsight is 20/20, isn't it?). I know this is a very highly rated machine - but is it the best bang for my buck in this price range?

I'm also looking at the Gaggia Classic. I guess the thing that scares me about the Silvia is the need to temperature surf. That's a whole learning curve I'm not sure I want to embark on. Just that one extra step that makes brewing a good shot too much work, lol.

My husband is soured on Gaggia because of the superautomatic plastic thing we have in the kitchen right now. But I know Gaggia has been around a long time, and have a good reputation in the industry. Like I said, I don't think you're really going to get a good consumer class superautomatic under $1000, no matter who makes it.

I think I'm leaning more towards the Gaggia Classic, but I didn't exactly make the best choice the last time 'round. I really want to get it right this time.

Any thoughts/experience/advice would be most welcome!

Michelle
Ontario, Canada
  | | Forum posting/replies are available to registered users.

      Topics Author Date
    thread link
Once bitten, twice shy
Chelle 2008/05/17 09:02
    emo
thread linkthread link Re:Once bitten, twice shy
colin 2008/05/17 10:00
    thread link
thread linkthread linkthread link Re:Once bitten, twice shy
Chelle 2008/05/17 12:30
    thread link
thread linkthread linkthread linkthread link Re:Once bitten, twice shy
colin 2008/05/17 17:07
    thread link
thread linkthread linkthread linkthread link Re:Once bitten, twice shy
Bert 2008/05/18 15:48
Boardwalk :: Forum List Espresso in General Higher end > 400 dollars

Joomlaboard Forum Component 1.1.2 Stable
Two Shoes M-Factory
How is the current economic crisis effecting your coffee habits?
 
Powered by Joomlaboard

EspressoTop50.com